Canada Post office in downtown Truro relocating to business park

TRURO – The loss of the main Canada Post outlet in downtown Truro will be a “major inconvenience” to a lot of people, a disappointed Mayor Bill Mills says.

Canada Post announced on Wednesday that, beginning this fall, all postal services will be relocated to the new post office in the Truro business park, a distance of 3.8 kms from the existing location on Prince Street.

“After careful consideration and review of customer feedback, Canada Post has decided to relocate the Truro Main post office at 664 Prince Street to 366 Industrial Avenue in the Fall of 2013,” John Reis, general manager of Retail Business said, in a news release.

Reis said the decision to relocate was made following a 30-day consultation period, during which people were invited to send in their written expressions.

No public hearings were held as part of the consultation, however, and Mills said it is his belief that the relocation was a foregone conclusion.

“I hate to say it but I kind of get the impression that the consultation was a little bit of window dressing and that the decision had already been made,” Mills said. “I think most people are kind of skeptical about that kind of consultation anyway because, as I say, the decision was already made.”

Mills said he conveyed to Canada Post that he was “less than pleased” with the decision.

“We thought that we built up a good case when we met with the president of Canada Post,” he said. “We do understand based on discussions with Canada Post that mail is certainly not what it used to be and certainly some changes have to be made. I guess we just felt there should be a little more creativity there in preserving something that a lot of people rely on.”

Mills further described the move as “another nail (in the coffin)” of Truro’s downtown core.

A relocation date has not yet been disclosed.

Hours of service at the new location will be Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Reis said there will be no change to postal box lobby hours and customers will continue to have access to their postal boxes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Postal box customers will also not have a change to their postal box number and/or postal code addresses.

Customers can access the post office 24/7 at canadapost.ca where they can buy stamps or commemorative products, pay for and print shipping labels for parcels, register a change of address, track a package, look up a postal code or access their epost account to manage bills.

Canada Post outlets are also available at MacQuarries Pharmasave on the Esplanade and at Shoppers Drug Mart on Robie Street.